Viggo 'On the Road'

Viggo 'On the Road'

The movie is disturbing at times. It's very pretty, and the more you get into it and let it carry you away, the more you enjoy it. When I saw it, I was just caught up in it. I let it carry me away as if it were a song. It makes you feel like music does: boom, boom. It's almost like Neil Cassady (called Dean Moriarty in the movie), who never entirely stops. I think it's well made and was worth the effort.

What did you think of the Beat Generation before the film? Had you already read the book?

"Yes, in the '70s, when I was 17-18 years old and living in America, on the border with Canada. On the Road was an initiation book for many adolescents of my generation, even for me. Much later, I discovered other writers such as Allen Ginsberg, Céline, Rimbaud, Camus ... But I find that Burroughs was the most original, an outsider, a pioneer of the language."

"I've read everything that was published by Kerouac, Burroughs and Ginsberg. In preparation of the movie, I listened to all available voice recordings of Burroughs... among them were also talks between him and Cronenberg concerning the filming of Naked Lunch."

"Salles could have made the classic iconographic film, a harmless postcard. Instead, he chose to represent even the darkest side of the journey, the drugs, car racing at full speed, the smoking, the sleepless nights. The director brings to the screen the desire to break the mold and the rules, to go beyond the limit that has inspired generations of young rebels, but also highlights the painful consequences."

For many people, this novel was deemed unfit for filming. Did you ever have similar qualms?

Viggo: I never thought this novel unfit for filming, yet it was obviously no easy task. But after reading the script, my concerns were easily resolved. The movie takes over the novel's best elements, stays true to the characters and besides focuses on the women, which for me is a true improvement compared to the original.

"Reading the book again, which is the first thing I did, made me realise how pertinent it is now - protest movements, mass movements with young people in Europe, in North America, in China, the Middle East... that carry the spirit of that time," Mortensen said.

He said the film's decades-long gestation - Francis Ford Coppola bought its rights in the 1970s and oversaw several abortive attempts to bring it to the screen - may have in fact been a stroke of luck.

"It's probably a great time for this to come out now because I think people will look at it -- not just older people, people of my generation, people who lived through it... but young people will discover this book and identify with it I think in a very strong way."

"I re-read the book for the film and became aware of how very relevant it is for today's world. Today too you can sense a sort of rejection of the economic crisis and the authorities on the part of young people. It was thus a very opportune moment to release the film. Both people of my generation, who will have read the book with a sort of nostalgia, and young people can identify with this period, with what went on. What I like about the book is the scope it leaves for multiple interpretations. Walter has created something really new with these characters, he didn't just go for a carbon copy."